Remember the Alamo.
It’s Veterans Day and I think that of all the days I repeated that saying, today is the day it makes the most sense and can be applied by everyone.
For those of you who don’t know the whole story of the Alamo, it is as follows: The Texans held out for 13 days in the mission that delayed Santa Anna’s Mexican army just long enough so that Sam Houston could round up enough men to fight and win Texas’ freedom. It also should be noted that the men at the Alamo were outnumbered 15-1 by some accounts.
Why remember the Alamo? It’s simple. I think that without the actions of the men of the Alamo, our country and the world would not be the same. It’s the butterfly effect. While I’m not one for parallel universes and cause/effect relationships between events in the past, I’m going to indulge myself on a little theoretic journey.
For argument’s sake, let’s say that the standoff at the Alamo didn’t happen. Then Santa Anna wouldn’t have had any trouble dispelling the Texan rebellion. Therefore Texas doesn’t become a state in 1845.
Since Texas isn’t a state, we lose out on that land area and America looks like a cat arching its back instead of an ugly looking fish.
But another side effect, minus the unsightliness of our landscape, is that we don’t get the oil money from Texas or the big oil boom that drove our country for a couple decades. Therefore we are not as strong of a country going forward and we are susceptible to the evil that happened during WWII. As a result, I see two things happening: One, Mexico invades and we are all speaking Spanish and taking siestas, or two, America enters WWII and gets its tail royally kicked and can’t save Europe from Hitler and all his awfulness.
If that isn’t bad enough for all you non-history buffs, something even worse could happen.
Since America isn’t a powerful nation, many of the immigrants that came here during and after WWII decide not to come, and we then lose out on some of our country’s greatest minds and potentially the greatest invention ever, the iPhone. Shoot, what am I talking about, the Internet wouldn’t exist. Nor would your cellphone.
So I implore everyone to remember the Alamo and think of how much worse your life would be if it weren’t for those brave men who gave their lives for their countrymen past, present and future.
But to answer sports editor Jordan LaBatte’s recent question, “What would have happened if Chuck Norris was at the Alamo?” from his senior goodbye column last week, the result would have been swift. He would have singlehandedly destroyed the Mexican army with one roundhouse kick and taken the entire country for himself. Mexico would then have become “Norrixico” and everyone, including women and children, would have epic beards.
All kidding aside, remember the Alamo and remember all those who’ve sacrificed and all those who’ve given the ultimate sacrifice. Thank all the service members you know and finally, thank you to all those that fought at the Alamo and around the world and those that continue to defend our country from all those that oppose us.
